Toronto After Dark Lineup Part 4
It's taken four blog posts and most of a month to get here but here we are with the final installment of our preview of the Toronto After Dark film festival coming up August 14-21. Let's see what treats round out the already pretty stellar lineup.
Even though I prefer my vampires bare-chested, sparkly and heavily moussed those of you who are into the old school style of vamps (Romanian folk tale old school) might want to check out "Strigoi." The British/Romanian co-production involves a college student returning to his rural village to find that the recently dead have the nasty habit of getting up and walking around at night. The film is being described as a Coen Brothers-style take on vampire myths which sounds like pure hyperbole but is still enough to intrigue me.
"Strigoi"
Vampires can never really be that scary because nobody really believes that they exist. The most frightening horror movies deal with monsters that many people actually believe in like ghosts or bigfoots or children. Now I'm not saying I believe in any of those things but the trailer for "The Children" gives me the heebie-jeebies nonetheless and the special effects department deserves special credit for making such realistic-looking little beasts.
"The Children"
What do you get when you cross a romantic comedy with a horror movie? I'd guess Matthew McConaughey, Renee Zellweger and a transvestite with a chainsaw but that movie came out 15 years ago. According the producers of "Must Love Death" you get light-hearted torture porn and a girl who wants to be buggered while she eats a burger. Or something like that.
"Must Love Death"
The last film rounding out the fest is "Rough Cut" which notably is written and produced by acclaimed Korean director Kim Ki-Duk ("Bad Guy", "3-Iron"). It concerns a loose cannon actor and a fame-obsessed gangster who work together on a movie where all the fight scenes are real.
"Rough Cut"
If you're keeping count and wondering about the 18th film, it's a selection of shorts that hasn't been finalized yet. You can find out what the shorts will be and see the full day-by-day breakdown at the Toronto After Dark website. All you lucky Torontonians let us know in the comments what you're most excited to see and more importantly, can we crash on your sofa?
John Shelton
Editor-In-Chief/Homeless Professor
Born and raised in the back of a video store, Shelton went beyond the hills and crossed the seven seas as BGH's foreign correspondent before settling into a tenure hosting Sophisticult Cinema. He enjoys the finer things in life, including but not limited to breakfast tacos, vintage paperbacks and retired racing greyhounds.